Ban? What Ban? Uber Motors On in Berlin

Uber has struggled to expand into a tightly regulated German passenger transportation market. Getty Images

Getty Images

Uber Technologies Inc. said Thursday that it continues to offer its service in Berlin despite an authority’s ban of the ride-sharing app.

Berlin’s state department for citizens’ and regulatory affairs said it has served Uber a prohibitive order in the interest of passenger protection, more than a year after the San Francisco-based company started offering its service in the city.

“Uber thus must not use a smartphone app or similar offers as of now, or arrange offers through this app which infringe the passenger transportation law,” the department said Wednesday in a press release.

Despite the official prohibition, a spokeswoman for the company said Uber continues to provide its service in the German capital.

“We intend to formally challenge this decision,” said General Manager Fabian Nestmann. “Berlin is a progressive and ambitious city where innovation thrives,” and it shouldn’t limit consumer choice, he said.

In Germany, chauffeurs are required to obtain a taxi license – limited in number – if they pick up passengers without returning to their home base after each ride, and a passenger transportation license. Taxi companies and authorities have accused Uber and its drivers of infringing on these rules.

The Berlin department has threatened to impose a fine of €25,000 ($33,000) for each breach of the prohibitive order. Uber, however, has deep pockets after a recent financing round valued the firm at $18.2 billion.

The order is the latest setback for Uber, which has faced bans and protest across Europe and in other parts of the world.

“The protection of the passenger has the highest priority,” the department said, adding it couldn’t tolerate drivers not having been examined and vehicles lacking a concession. The department said its order isn’t final yet, with a nod to Uber’s possibilities of appeal.

The head of the Berlin Taxi Association, Richard Leipold, welcomed the order. “As taxi drivers, we have to obey a number of rules and duties,” and the decision makes it clear that this regulation applies also to competitors, he said.

Berlin’s order follows a similar move of Germany’s second city of Hamburg, which banned Uber in July, a month after the service had landed there. Hamburg’s economic department said it doesn’t enforce the injunction pending an appeal.

A court in Berlin had decided already earlier this year that Uber’s service infringes the law, but the plaintiff abstained from demanding an enforcement of the injunction because he feared Uber would demand damages.

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